Vista school lands 'Addams' world premiere

Rancho Buena Vista High School is the first school in the world to stage the 'Addams Family' musical

The Rancho Buena Vista High School drama department is the first high school in the world to stage "The Addams Family, a New Musical Comedy." Starring in the musical are Shannon Morrissey, left, Andrew Dorward, Wyatt Smith, Catherine Lynch, Makenzie Scott, Hayden Royster and Kaylee Bender.
— Rancho Buena Vista High School

The Rancho Buena Vista High School drama department is the first high school in the world to stage "The Addams Family, a New Musical Comedy." Starring in the musical are Shannon Morrissey, left, Andrew Dorward, Wyatt Smith, Catherine Lynch, Makenzie Scott, Hayden Royster and Kaylee Bender.
/ Rancho Buena Vista High School

Vista  If you’re dying to see the spooky “Addams Family” musical comedy, you have just two choices on Thursday — fly to London for the show’s regional theater premiere, or drive to Vista’s Rancho Buena Vista High School, which holds the rights for the world’s first high school production.

RBV’s longtime theater director Mark Scott said he’s still pinching himself at the combination of good luck and hard work that brought “Addams” to his campus before any other school or amateur troupe on the globe.

“I stumbled onto treasure,” he said Friday. “We’re always trying to do something newer or that the kids can identify with, but I never expected something like this to happen.”

Based on the creepy characters in Charles Addams’ long-running comic strip, “The Addams Family” musical spent 20 months on Broadway in 2010-2011, then toured the U.S. and abroad until December. In early January, Scott said he applied for the rights to the show, but when he heard it might not be available until the summer, he gave up and moved on. Then Scott got an email from Theatrical Rights Worldwide, which wanted to work with Scott to make the show happen.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Scott said. “They said ‘we’re not letting any other high school have the rights until June but we made an exception for you.’”

Fred Stuart, director of marketing and creative development for the New York-based licensing organization, said his company decided to give the premiere rights to RBV because the quality of its past work will set a high bar for other schools and amateur troupes in the future.

“They have a well-known program as a high school and they do outstanding work,” Stuart said. “It’s nice that the initial production is getting a first-class treatment.”

Scott had headed the theater program at RBV for 25 years and has produced more than 85 student shows. Last year’s school production of “The Wedding Singer” won the Best Musical award at the 2013 MACY Awards in Costa Mesa, out of dozens of high schools in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Yet even with all that experience, Scott said producing “Addams Family” has been the biggest challenge of his career.

The musical is the story of an everyday American family who just happen to be vampires, witches and monsters. Normally, a school can rent costumes, wigs, and scenery for a show like this, but because this is the first “Addams” production, all of these elements had to be built in-house by students, parents, faculty and volunteers.

The musical’s score, which will be played by nine professional musicians, is also a challenge, with songs in four different styles — traditional musical theater, Latin, pop and vaudeville. And the makeup for the 30-member cast (many of whom play dead ancestors who can’t return to the family crypt until teenager Wednesday Addams solves a problem) is especially difficult.

“We’ve probably spent a thousand dollars just on makeup alone and it probably takes about an hour to apply the makeup to our cast,” he said.

Finally, because there is spooky stagecraft required, Scott’s team has also had to create puppetry, special effects and unusual props.

“There are lots of little tricks in this show, there’s a torture chamber, a rocket and Uncle Fester’s face has to appear on the moon,” Scott said. “It is really difficult but that’s what makes the magic of theater come to fruition.”